Church on hold for Royal Oak housing project

ROYAL OAK — Plans for a house of worship are on hold for a residential project that will bring four-bedroom townhouses for families to rent — even ones with dogs — to Campbell Road.

Greenius Corp. of Oak Park will wait to develop the land for the never-named church and instead use the space set aside for the church parking lot for 12 live-work units if the Planning Commission approves the revision on Tuesday.

Plans for The Commons of Royal Oak also call for 156 2,050-square-foot, solar-powered town homes and a park with a playground at the former site of Twain Elementary School, 4600 N. Campbell, which is next to a dog park.

Greenius spokesman Jason Lewiston said he still is looking for an “all-inclusive” church to join the estimated $25-30 million development, especially one that has a child care center for the families that will move there.

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However, Greenius has pulled the church from the 12.3-acre project for now and changed its name in an attempt to get unanimous support from the Planning Commission, which approved it in a 4-3 vote in August.

“This is the biggest project in Royal Oak in 30 years and we want unanimous approval from the Planning Commission and the City Commission,” Lewiston said.

Lewiston said one critic of the original project, which had been called “Church Commons,” called it a religious compound and others questioned whether a church would be “intimidating” or push away some people.

“We listened very carefully and maybe we were a little too enthusiastic about the church,” Lewiston said. “I’m not a Christian and never thought about it like that. We made changes to alleviate concerns this would be a religious enclave or a development a church is in charge of.”

Even without a church, there’s nothing like The Commons of Royal Oak on the market in Michigan or the Midwest, Lewiston said.

“There’s huge demand for family-size apartments,” he said. “Historically, couples bought houses, raised kids and lived in them for 30 years. That’s changing. It’s a fluid world. People are moving every five or six years and home ownership is less glamorous.”

The live-work units will have 150-square-foot office spaces on the ground floor suitable for architects, attorneys and other professionals. The dwellings will be above and also have solar panels to provide some of the electricity.

A public hearing on the revised project is set for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, when city officials will consider Greenius’s request to build 26 houses on 11 Mile Road where Royal Oak Community Farm operated.

Tentatively called Greenius North Dorchester, the new neighborhood will have 2,300- to 2,400-square-foot houses with four bedrooms, 2 ½ baths and options for solar panels. The houses will be within about a mile walking distance of downtown and sell for $300,000 to $350,000.

The Planning Commission has an ambitious agenda on Tuesday with 10 projects to consider in all.

In addition to the two Greenius Corp. housing projects, the board will look at an $18 million neuroscience center proposed for Beaumont Health System. If approved, the three-story, 80,000-square-foot building with an underground level will replace the former renal center, which is empty and would be demolished. The center would put services for patients dealing with strokes, dementia, concussions, epilepsy, brain tumors and other problems under one roof.

Another request is to convert the former Royal Music, 512 N. Main, into an Adidas store with a showroom to be called the Coaches Lounge for meetings and clinics. The second floor would have three lofts — two to be rented and one for “corporate needs.”

The Planning Commission also will consider requests to turn a former marketing business at 27844 Woodward into an Ulta store and hair salon; consider the conditional rezoning of property at 3425 Starr Road for medical offices; expand O’Toole’s, 205 W. Fifth St.; and allow another drive-through lane for Michigan Schools & Credit Union, 31805 Woodward.

The Planning Commission meets at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Royal Oak City Hall, 211 Williams St.